Moscow refuses opposition march downtown, offers new location

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, January 20 (Itar-Tass) —— Moscow’s authorities refused organisation of the opposition’s march in the centre of the city, but suggest organising it along Frunzenskaya Embankment.

Deputy Mayor Alexander Gorbenko told reporters on Friday that the Mayor’s Office would discuss with the opposition a variant of organising the march of 50,000 participants along Frunzenskaya Embankment towards Luzhniki, but in that case the event should be rescheduled from February 4 to February 5.

He explained that the officials had received an application for a march from nationalists, where they are expecting also 50,000 participants.

“But we have suggested to them organising a march and rally in Lyublino /district outside the central part/ with up to 10,000 participants,” Gorbenko said. Besides, the LDPR /Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia/ had filed an application for a rally of 2,500 participants in Pushkinskaya Square.

“But that square cannot host that many people, and we shall ask the organisers to cut the number of participants to 1,500,” the deputy mayor said.

Earlier on Friday, the opposition presented to Moscow Mayor’s Office an application for organisation of a march and rally. They planned the event for February 4, where at 14:00 they would start a march in Kaluzhskaya Square along the Garden Ring, and a rally from 16:00 to 19:00 Moscow time in Manezhnaya Square.

The officially declared objective of the march and rally were protests against violations at the elections to the State Duma on December 4, 2011. The march of February 4 was supposed to continue the rallies For Honest Elections, which were organised late past year in Moscow.